


Can't Get Enough

by LZClotho (LZielinsky)



Series: Twisted Tea [5]
Category: Actor RPF
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Cunnilingus, F/F, Fingerfucking, Lesbian Sex, Living Together, Oral Sex, Sex, Smut, Vaginal Fingering, toy sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:13:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27916570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LZielinsky/pseuds/LZClotho
Summary: Following “Whisper Their Love” in the “Twisted Tea” series. New lovers Kate and Jeri can’t get enough of each other, spending time together in every way and learning what they each enjoy in, and out, of the bedroom.
Relationships: Kate Mulgrew/Jeri Ryan
Series: Twisted Tea [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706776
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	Can't Get Enough

**Author's Note:**

> I finished early. Happy holidays!

Kate and Jeri sat on the balcony overlooking the Pacific sharing Saturday morning breakfast. Hiatus for “Shark” had only just started with the wrap of shooting on Thursday night. The women were dressed still in their swimsuits, having greeted the morning with a stroll on the beach and a quick dip in the ocean. The section of beach where they had first dreamed being together and then made it a reality had been, again and again, a favorite place to kiss as the sun came up or even when it was going down.

Kate applied butter and blackberry preserves to a biscuit then leaned back watching the wind play with Jeri's hair as she read the newspaper. Contentment in that moment was perfection, but Kate still felt anxious as she considered the future. While Jeri was on hiatus and had a job to return to, Kate was effectively unemployed. It had been two weeks since they returned from Seattle and had been outed at the airport. They’d made it off the front pages of the tabloids and life was quiet. Too quiet.

The telephone by Jeri's pile of newspaper rang. “Yes?” Jeri shook her head. “No, it's Jeri. Hold on, Paula, I'll give you to Kate.” Jeri laughed. “Just leave her in one piece when you give her back.”

Kate blinked. “Paula?”

“She says she has something to discuss with you.” Jeri passed the phone across the table and picked up her toast once more.

“Oh.” Kate put down her fork, wiped her lips and took a quick swallow of coffee. Finally, she lifted the receiver to her ear. “Hello, Paula.”

“Good morning. How are you?”

The agent seemed cheerful, which relaxed Kate marginally. “I’m fine. Good. What’s up?”

“Have you had enough of L.A. yet?”

“What? Why?” Kate bit her lip and glanced at Jeri before looking down at her plate.

“Is something wrong?” Jeri asked.

“I don’t know,” Kate replied; she hit mute on the phone. “She wants to know if I’m tired of being here.”

Jeri frowned. “What?”

Hitting the button again, Kate said, “We don’t understand.”

“There’s nothing to be alarmed about,” Paula said. “This is good news. I had put out that you’re open to new projects. Found some plays on the East coast. I also have interest from a production in Maryland.”

“Maryland?”

“What is shooting in Maryland?” Jeri asked. Kate shook her head.

Paula said, “Documentary.”

“Narration?” Kate asked. She had narrated several science and astronomy topics.

“No, it’s actually a dramatic thing. They’re interested in you acting, re-enacting actually, a series of military hearings.”

Kate frowned. “Military hearings? What would I know about that?”

“There’s not really much to know. It’s scripted. You’ve played military roles. Voyager was pseudo-military.”

“But it’s not action. It’s a trial?”

“Yes, the Guantanamo trials.”

“Guantanamo?”

“The place in Cuba where they put all the enemy combatants from 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan,” Paula said. Kate only just heard her explanation over Jeri’s alarm.

“They want you to go to a prison?”

“It’s a reenactment,” Kate replied to Jeri.

“I’ve got the information package and the script. It’s just a 30 minute film, written by their law students. They’re filming in at University of Maryland Law School with three days prep and three days to shoot.”

“When would I have to be there?”

“By Thursday.”

Kate bit her lip. Jeri’s hand was suddenly atop hers on the table, squeezing lightly. To Paula, she said, “Give me just a minute?”

“Sure.”

Kate put the phone down and hit mute again. Looking up, she found blue eyes studying her.

“You want to do this,” Jeri said.

“I want to work, of course, but maybe not this… it’s a 30 minute documentary. I’d be flying across the country and back again.”

“You look fabulous in uniform,” Jeri teased. “Remember I’ve looked at your filmography.”

“That was _years_ ago.” Kate felt her cheeks warmly flush. _Remo Williams_ had also been damn campy. “This sounds serious.”

“You _love_ serious,” Jeri pointed out. “You should take it.”

“But I’ll only have three days to prepare.”

“You prepared for every _Voyager_ script with far less time, and this has no special effects, no action, and is only 30 minutes long. Three days is going to feel luxurious by comparison.”

“I’d have to leave you,” she said at last, turning her hand over and catching Jeri’s in it. It hurt her heart to think of leaving the blonde so soon after they’d finally figured everything out. After _she_ had figured everything out.

“Alex will visit while you’re gone.”

“So I’ll come back to no sex, hmm?” She started to pick up the phone.

Jeri held it down. “No, just means we pack in as much as we can handle before you go.”

Blue eyes gleamed with lust. Kate might be anxious about going across country to film, but the blonde’s expression… She realized she might enjoy parting from time to time if it caused such a hungry look from her lover. “I see.”

“I thought so. Get to thinking. I’ve already got some ideas.” Jeri stood up from the table, collecting their plates.

Kate’s cheeks burned. She appreciated Jeri’s creativity when it came to sex and was already looking forward to getting into bed with her lover. She picked up the phone, unmuted it once more, and said, “Paula, I’ll do it. Send over the packet.”

“Good. You’ll have it by six.”

“Thank you.”

# # #

Jeri was quick about filling the dishwasher and Kate entered a few moments later with serving plates and bowls. Together they found containers for the few remaining items. She watched Kate pop a piece of banana in her mouth before putting the container in the refrigerator and thought about their food sex in Seattle. She also had the Feeldoe toy, which would definitely be fun.

They were still in their swimsuits from being down on the beach earlier. It would take only a few minutes to be naked and making love. The phone now abandoned on the counter gave her an idea. She tapped to open it and started her music app.

Jeri noted with anticipation it would take very little time to peel Kate out of her swimsuit. The phone now abandoned on the counter gave her an idea. She tapped to open it and started her music app.

Grasping Kate’s hand from the refrigerator door, she pulled her into her arms. “Hmm?” Kate asked.

Jeri nuzzled her throat. “Dance with me.”

For a moment Kate’s expression suggested she would object, but then the gray-blue eyes settled into a smooth blue and she smiled. “I’d love to.”

Jeri kissed her lips as they started to move to the beat of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” and it was magical. The sunlight through her large picture windows cast them in bright rays, illuminating the red in Kate’s hair, amid the browns. The few gray and blonde strands which Kate sometimes worried about in the morning mirror, Jeri found only made her more attractive. She kissed Kate’s hair as they moved together. “I love you,” she murmured.

Kate lifted her head from Jeri’s shoulder and leaned back, bringing their gazes even. She lifted her hand from Jeri’s shoulder and brushed at the locks of Jeri’s hair loose on her shoulder. “I love you, too. So much.” Her palm went to the nape of Jeri’s neck, drawing her close until their lips were pressed together.

Jeri slid her arms around Kate’s back and unhooked the strap of her swimsuit. It was a one-piece, but the catch, behind her shoulder-blades, made the top lose its tautness. She stroked skin softly, pulling the swimsuit aside as she lowered her lips to Kate’s shoulder and arms.

“I need to touch you,” Kate protested.

“I told you we’d have as much sex as you could handle,” Jeri said, letting her tone get cheeky; Kate’s eyes flashed such a brilliant dark blue as her pupils blew wide with lust. “I intend to start now.”

“Oh, god,” Kate murmured, then she gasped when Jeri’s lips closed over a nipple. “Yesss,” she breathed. Her hands cupped the back of Jeri’s head.

Moving slowly, nuzzling, nipping, Jeri kissed Kate until they were in the living room. She shifted the woman’s suit finally off her hipsand nudged her to sit on the leather sofa.

“Jeri,” Kate said.

The woman’s sun-kissed skin was covered in freckles and Jeri felt her mouth water as she considered kissing every one. “God, I love your freckles,” she said suddenly and leaned Kate back until she reclined fully on the sofa. Kneeling beside her on the floor, Jeri soothed her fingers over soft skin, fancifully “connecting the dots,” even as she drove Kate’s touch sense crazy and made the woman squirm. She followed her fingertips with the tip of her tongue and Kate’s twisting increased.

“Please.” Kate exhaled, trying to get hold of herself. But Jeri did that for her. Slipping her hand down Kate’s stomach, warm and wide strokes, she first cupped the fine hairs of her mound then rubbed alongside her clit, before finally curling her fingers inside. All the while she never stopped nipping and kissing Kate’s breasts, finally taking the nearest nipple in her teeth.

Kate arched her back. Jeri felt the walls around her fingertips squeeze as her lover’s orgasm swept through her body. “Oh, god,” slipped from Kate’s lips before Jeri felt a tug on her head and the other woman pulled her up, catching her lips in a hard kiss.

Rather than withdraw, Jeri shifted her fingers and deepened her strokes. Kate’s orgasm had made her so wet, there would undoubtedly be a wet spot on the sofa. _Thank_ _G_ _od for leather_. Jeri chuckled against Kate’s lips as she added a third finger to her lover’s channel.

She moved her mouth gradually away from Kate’s lips and returned to her breasts, pushing and pulling on them with her tongue and teeth while slowly teasing Kate’s clit with her thumb. “How are you?” she checked in.

Kate’s center throbbed and softened around her fingers and she found her pinky finger easily joining the other three on several strokes. “Wonderful,” Kate said.

Jeri leaned back and continued her strokes, but watching Kate’s body responses, from her flushed chest to her hard pointed nipples, the arch of her back as she moved into Jeri’s strokes until Jeri’s hand, to the base of her thumb, disappeared inside her.

She curled her fingertips and found a spot inside Kate’s channel that, when rubbed, stiffened her legs, arched her back, and caused her to open her mouth in a cry, “God! Jeri!”

“That good, hmm?” Jeri chuckled. “I’m so close to having my whole hand inside you,” she said. That gave her pause. “Have you ever done that?” she asked.

“Wha—what’s that?” Kate exhaled and caught her breath. Jeri stroked until she arched again. “Oh, god. So, good,” she murmured.

“I asked if you’ve ever been fisted,” Jeri said.

Dazed blue eyes with pupils blown from orgasm found Jeri. Slowly Kate blinked and a small furrow formed as her older lover gave the question some thought. Finally Kate shook her head. “I can’t recall such a thing. You are the most creative lover I have ever –” Jeri’s thumb found Kate’s clit once more. “If it feels like this, keep doing that,” she breathed out. “Just keep touching me.”

“Well, as I understand it takes a bit more preparation,” Jeri said. She leaned forward and brushed her lips lightly over Kate’s while her fingertips sought deeper spots to touch her inside. “And more lube than we use even with our toy. Though you are completely soaked.”

A small throbbing ripple passed through Kate’s center and Jeri let her fingers slip out. Easing herself onto the sofa next to Kate meant her lover did find the wet spot with her hip as they rearranged.

When Kate grimaced, Jeri suggested, “Shower?”

Kate sat up and then lowered her head to Jeri’s breast which she mouthed before pulling a nipple between her teeth. Jeri squirmed. “Actually I’d like to make love to you first.”

“Oh?”

Kate pulled herself over Jeri’s lap, straddling her legs and pressing her still-heated mound against Jeri’s belly. She cupped Jeri’s cheeks and kissed her. “Yes, I do believe you’re two orgasms behind.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“What do you need?” Kate asked between many small kisses, some barely brushes of their lips, others pressing like she was applying little stickers which Jeri fancifully decided must read, “Mine.”

She slipped her arms behind Kate’s back and pulled her forward until their breasts were crushed together. “You have such a wonderful mouth,” she said.

“And it does so many more things that talk,” Kate replied.

Jeri chuckled. “That’s true.”

“Let’s go into the bedroom.” Kate stood from Jeri’s lap and held out her hand. After taking it and standing up, Jeri followed Kate into the master bedroom.

# # #

It was mid-morning, sunlight streaming in through the high windows overlooking the bed. Distantly from the kitchen, Kate could still hear the music playlist now playing a soothing melody about quality time. This whole thing with Jeri still made Kate marvel. She who had been satisfied through two marriages with sex in the dark, silently holding back so as not to wake children, loved making love to Jeri in the brightest of daylight, able to watch every expression, every emotion, as it suffused her blonde lover’s face.

They were definitely indulging in quality time today. They’d gotten into swimsuits at dawn for what started as a simple walk on the Pacific beach below the house, butthen actually playfully chased each other in and out of the surf. Holding hands, they had walked back up the bluff steps, put on towel robes over their suits, made breakfast and eaten it over more conversation.

They’d _danced_ in the living room and Jeri had brought her body to pleasure several times.

Now she and Jeri were climbing onto their bed with its still unmade sheets.

 _Making love all day_. It was something she couldn’t have imagined past her twenties when work and children took up so much time. Watching Jeri spread herself and her golden hair across the white sheets, Kate thanked God for allowing her to be this lucky.

“God, I love you,” she murmured prayerfully.Crawling over Jeri’s long legs, she pinned her lover to the bed on her back, straddling her hips, tucking her feet behind Jeri’s knees. She stroked her fingers down the muscles of Jeri’s upraised arms, watching the blue irises thin as her pupils widened.Continuing to hold her lover’s gaze, she cupped Jeri’s breasts and toyed with the masses and then focused her attention on the nipples. “You are so strong, soft, and beautiful,” she added. “I love how your nipples harden, begging for my touch.” She tweaked them and Jeri gasped then inhaled hard through her nose. “You would come so quickly if I only sucked them, wouldn’t you?” she asked.

It was somewhat rhetorical. Kate had learned Jeri could orgasm from nipple stimulation when the blonde confessed some of her bathroom breaks had been necessary because of the way the costume made her need to rub one out. Kissing her breasts, Kate apologized for every angry word she’d ever said about how the bathroom breaks slowed shooting. In the end, Jeri had orgasmed against Kate’s thigh.

“You need to stop talking so much,” Jeri murmured, the beginnings of panting cutting into her words. “Please.”

“Oh, but my voice does funny things to you,” Kate teased, another revelation of Jeri’s that had sparked from pillow talk. Kate rubbed herself against Jeri and kissed her lips. “I promise, though, I will get you there.”

Jeri groaned. Kate kissed her sternum, tongue dabbling in the space between her collarbones. Long soft fingers slid along her back and up into her hair as she nibbled her way across to her right shoulder, then down across the soft mounds to the other shoulder.She rested her head briefly against Jeri’s left breast and listened to her heartbeat, thrumming quickly but easily. Parting from the spot with a tender kiss, Kate licked over the short distance until Jeri’s nipple was under her lips.

The hands in her hair started stroking gently. Her name crossed Jeri’s lips as little more than a breath. She smiled against the soft skin and swirled her tongue, not quite touching the needy peak. She shifted one of her legs between Jeri’s and the other outside her hip. This brought both their sexes in contact with a hard thigh. She flexed her leg; Jeri moaned at the pressure. When Jeri bent her leg, butting Kate’s sex, the action caused her to moan just at the moment she had placed her lips over Jeri’s nipple once more.

The heat from Kate’s breath sparked Jeri to moan, too. “God.” Fingers tightened in her hair. Kate nudged her knee more firmly and set to nibbling and sucking Jeri’s breast in earnest. She felt the heat and wetness increasing against her thigh and smiled again around the nipple in her teeth before sucking hard and quick, then licking tenderly.

The alternating sensations ratcheted up Jeri’s arousal to the point where she was leaking and thrusting up rhythmically against Kate’s thigh. Kate reached down, cupped Jeri’s mound as the other woman had done for her earlier, and rubbed her nub tenderly.

The blonde arched and keened. “Kate!” Liquid pooled onto Kate’s palm. She rubbed it back into Jeri’s center, the broad firm touch setting off another orgasm while Kate continued to suck on Jeri’s nipple.

One hand slid from her hair to her back and pulled at Kate’s hip. She shifted her position, rubbing her own center against Jeri’s thigh. The sensation, however, drove Kate to the brink of an orgasm so she forced herself to stop. Instead she focused on filling Jeri’s needs. The woman’s long legs had fallen open and Kate accepted the invitation, easily pressing two fingers inside, curling them as the muscles attempted to pull her deeper.

“Mm,” Jeri hummed, lifting her hips to meet Kate’s thrusts. “Mm, just there. God,” she arched her neck, throwing her head back, and Kate felt more rippling. She paused in sucking to lick at the taut nipple then lifted up onto her elbow, continuing to thrust and watching Jeri reaching yet another orgasm.

“I love how you grab my fingers,” she said, turning those fingers now, feeling the opening soften. She rested her head on her hand and continued stroking Jeri with three fingers now. “You asked me about fisting earlier. Have you?”

Blue eyes turned to her and blinked. “Hmm?” She wriggled as Kate turned her fingers slightly. “Mm.”

“You mentioned fisting me earlier. Have you ever done it before?”

The glaze cleared briefly from Jeri’s eyes and she smiled gently, cupping the back of Kate’s head. “Chris and I talked about it, but I’ve always thought his hands would be too big.”

Licking her lover’s taste from her fingers, Kate then returned to stroking Jeri’s center. “You like the idea,” she said, feeling how Jeri throbbed and still felt hot and soft. “Would you want me in you, or your hand in me?” Kate removed her fingers, feeling Jeri lift her hips briefly to follow, then brought her hand where Jeri could see it, shiny, coated with Jeri’s juices. “Too big?”

“Our feeldoe is about the size of your wrist,” Jeri said.

“Did you get four fingers in me before?” Kate asked. “I felt so full, like you were about to reach in and grab my heart,” she added, whispering against Jeri’s ear. The woman’s center throbbed and pulsed, and Jeri’s panting came harder now. She rubbed her palm against the woman’s mound and then pushed three fingers back into place, wrapped in Jeri’s heated core. “It’s like you’re sucking me inside you.”

“Kate.” Jeri’s eyes rolled back as the mix of touch and talk sent her reeling, exactly as Kate knew it would.

Bending forward and kissing her, Kate continued stroking with four fingers tightly tucked together. “Maybe we should table this conversation for another time, hmm?”

“Fuck,” Jeri gasped between kisses. “Kate. Please.”

“You want to try this now?” Kate asked. She soothed her fingers over Jeri’s mound once more before tucking her fingers together. The four slipped inside easily. Using her thumb, she brushed Jeri’s clit.

“Oh, God, yes.” Jeri lifted onto her elbows, curled toward Kate’s hand and started moving herself on it in earnest. “Feels so good.” Kate sat up, tucking her leg under her to keep her balance as she coaxed her lover on.

Jeri came a moment later with four fingers of Kate’s hand thrusting inside her and it was the most beautiful moment Kate could ever remember being part of. She kissed Jeri’s flushed and damp shoulder. She tangled her fingers in the sunburst that was Jeri’s hair in the light cascading around her face. She inhaled Jeri’s gasping breaths and hungrily kissed her.

Gradually they subsided, bodies melding together and heart rates slowing. “I love you,” Jeri murmured, resting her forehead against Kate’s.

“I love you, too.”

# # #

  
After that they did shower and put on clothes. Jeri tied her hair up, Kate fluffed hers dry with a towel. The balcony table hosted their lunch of cheese, crackers, and cool wine. Jeri turned up the music she’d turned on earlier so they could hear it above the roaring surf below. Though they’d been together for almost two months now, Kate found the music relaxing, but unfamiliar. “Who is this?”

“I don’t know offhand. But it’s R&B or soul. I have a playlist on Spotify.”

“What’s that?”

“Spotify? A streaming music service.” Jeri leaned back and sipped her wine. “It’s brand new actually. Bob got me connected to Soundcloud when we were talking about new musicians. I found Spotify when I couldn’t remember the name he’d said and searched for ‘music online’.”

“Oh.” Kate put down her wine glass and picked up a cracker with a small round of cheese on it. She chewed while she considered her thoughts. _The internet_. When she had started on Voyager, the online thing had been so new. By the time she and Jeri were caught on video in the airport though, the internet had become something pervasive. Kate wasn’t so sure it was a good development. “I like the music,” she said.

“I can find out the artist. It’ll be on the display.” Jeri started to her feet

Kate’s hand stopped her. “No, it’s all right. I–Sometimes I feel out of touch.”

“It’s not just you. We are both older than the internet,” Jeri said. She shrugged. “It’s just a thing kids use.”

“I guess so.”

# # #

Later, as they both read quietly sitting together in the living room with Jeri’s music still playing from her phone, Jeri noticed several times Kate set aside her book, picked up her phone and studied her screen. Her lover was so sexy with reading glasses poised across the bridge of her nose and cheeks that Jeri briefly contemplated enticing her into another session on the sofa. _Like having a librarian fetish_ , she thought with a smirk. She asked, “You want to download the app?”

“Hmm? Oh. No, no, it’s all right.” Kate set aside her phone.

“You know, you can admit you don’t like my music and want some of your own.”

“No, I do enjoy the music,” Kate said. “I jus–it’s–I keep wanting to know the names of the artists or the songs. I don’t know most of them. I want to buy the albums.”

Jeri laughed. “That is the reason the music industry agreed to let these streaming services play their songs. Apparently the click-throughrate is phenomenal.”

“The what?”

Jeri shook her head and smiled. “The sales from the songs.”

“Something else you learned from Robert?”

“Yes.”

Kate looked at her phone then back to Jeri. “All right. Would you please show me how to do this?”

“My pleasure.” Jeri moved closer to Kate and picked up her phone. She tapped the screen and found the correct icon. Kate rested her head against her shoulder and watched as Jeri scrolled through the selections, finding the correct app. The purchase link asked for a password.

She had barely glanced toward Kate when the woman said softly, “55A4.”

Typing it in, Jeri watched the app download and then clicked open. “What kind of music do you like?”

“This is nice. Really.” She gestured into the air where Jeri’s music still played. “But I was in New York by ‘75 and bought my first album: Gloria Gaynor. Do they have her?” Jeri typed in the artist’s name and added her. She also clicked “like this” underneath the playing track. She also added the same playlist she had on her phone.

“Oh,” Kate marveled at the song coming from her phone. “I had no idea.”

“The subscription is a few dollars a month, but it’s less expensive than buying albums.”

“Thank you.” Kate reached out and took her phone from Jeri’s hand. She turned her head and kissed Jeri’s shoulder then pressed the pause button on the screen before putting the phone aside. “I’m always learning new things with you,” she said.

“Happy to help.”

Kate straightened and leaned harder into Jeri’s side. “I _love_ doing new things with you,” she said, wrapping her arms around Jeri’s middle.

The doorbell interrupted their rising passion. Both of them exhaled slowly. Jeri gave Kate’s lips a quick peck before she stood up. “I’ll get it.”

At her door a man in a brown uniform held a thick envelope and presented a signature pad. “I have a delivery for Kate Mulgrew,” he said. “From the Delphin Agency.”

“Yes?” Kate walked up behind Jeri.

Jeri answered, “It’s the packet from Jane.”

“Oh. OK. Here.” Kate stepped forward as Jeri stepped back. She signed the pad and took the packet. “Thank you.”

Tucking the signature pad under his arm, the delivery man nodded to her and stepped back out onto the walk leading to the street. “Have a nice day, ma’am.”

Jeri closed the door when Kate started to walk back to the sofa, opening the packet. Crossing to her side quickly she kissed Kate’s temple and hugged her shoulders. “I’ll let you work on that. I’m going to get back to my book.”

Kate looked up and smiled. Jeri noted that the excitement of a new project to dive into had turned the woman’s eyes a keen blue. “Thank you for encouraging me to do this.”

“You’re welcome.”

# # #

Hours later, Kate had shifted from reading on the sofa to reading at the table, fetching a legal pad where she wrote notes. Jeri felt her stomach rumble and looked out to see that the sun was setting. “Interested in dinner?” she asked Kate as she passed her at the table, brushing her shoulders and kissing her cheek.

“Something light,” Kate suggested. “Maybe a salad.”

“I have cold cooked shrimp for protein.”

“Sounds good.” As Jeri started on collecting the vegetables, Kate appeared at the doorway to the kitchen. “Want some help?”

“No, you finish up.”

“I have some more research to do.”

“You can do it tomorrow. Use my computer and go online.”

“Thank you.” Kate leaned on the archway wall, crossing her arms over her chest.

Jeri felt her eyes on her as she methodically cut up the various vegetables. “Something on your mind?”

“I–I am _constantly_ in awe of you,” Kate said. She eased up beside Jeri and put her hand on her back. “I feel like I get all this support from you and I haven’t given nearly enough back.”

“I don’t do this to get something back,” Jeri said. “I love having you here. It’s felt…so much finally makes sense. I’m beyond happy for the first time in my life.” She put down the knife, picked up the wooden fork and spoon and tossed the salad. “Now for the shrimp.”

Before she could move, Jeri watched Kate go to the sink where she found the defrosted bag of pre-cooked shrimp, running it under the faucet once more and then opening it. “Here.”

“Thank you.”

Kate retrieved some plates with high sides and brought them to Jeri. “For the record, I’m beyond happy for the first time in my life, too.”

Putting down the plates with a clatter, Jeri pulled Kate into her arms and kissed her with a fierce feeling beating in her chest. “I can’t get enough of you,” Jeri said.

“Same,” Kate said, kissing her. “I’ll finish my studying tomorrow. For the rest of the night I’m all yours.”

# # #

“What are we watching?” Kate asked. Jeri had disappeared into her DVD collection to search for their evening’s entertainment. Kate had assembled a tray of wine and cheesecake petit fours from Ortolan for their “sinful” treat. Setting it on the low table in front of the sofa, she looked down at the leather and noticed it had a still-drying shiny spot. She blushed, remembering how the morning’s activities had gone.

“When we do that again, I think we should use a sheet.” Jeri’s voice accompanied her arms wrapping around Kate’s middle and her head tucking onto her shoulder from behind.

Planning sex was still new to Kate, but when they did… Or more accurately, when _Jeri_ planned it, Kate always wondered why they hadn’t done it sooner. She recalled Jeri’s food sex distraction in Seattle and the first time she’d supplied the Feeldoe. The results were often more incredible than she could have imagined. “You have opened me to so many new experiences,” she said.

“You know it’s new for me too,” Jeri replied. She kissed Kate’s neck, just below her ear. “I love exploring you, what your body likes, and how it reacts. But exploring _with_ you is the best of all.”

“But how do you–” Kate cut herself off. “Do you watch porn?” she asked.

“No,” Jeri replied, still kissing Kate’s throat. “Honestly sometimes it’s just a flash of possibility when we’re doing something else. Then I ask.”

Kate nodded, feeling Jeri moving against her back. “I just can’t imagine.” She closed her eyes, absorbing the warmth. She cupped her hands over Jeri’s on her belly.

Jeri murmured in her ear, “Of course you can. You imagined what it would be like to find me and tell me how you really felt. I could have shot you down.”

“You did.”

Jeri’s lips caressed her temple. “Then I started thinking what could be, too, if I just let myself be vulnerable.”

“Do you still feel that way?” Kate asked. “Vulnerable?”

“Sometimes, but it’s usually because I’m wrestling with an ingrained habit. I feel like you make me stronger, more capable of breaking bad patterns.”

“Bad patterns?”

“Yes. I’ve never communicated with a lover as much as I did with Chris and now you. There are times I think I shouldn’t say something. I have to consciously remember you are not Jack or Brannon, or anyone else. You’re you.”

Kate nodded. It made a lot of sense. “I’m used to feeling second, but also fighting against it. I’m a feminist, at least I thought. When it comes to work. Independent, demanding an equal place. But I’ve been weak in my personal relationships.”

“So…” Jeri drew Kate closer. “Equal partner opportunity here. What do you want to do tonight? Do you want to watch the movie? Or do you want to go into the bedroom and have sex, or maybe…” She dropped her voice. “Do you want to have sex on the balcony, the wind blowing on your face and breasts while I use the Feeldoe?”

“What?” She tried to sound shocked – she was – but Kate felt heat instantly rising in her body at the idea. Jeri’s hand massaged her hip and then one hand kneaded her breast and suddenly she could _see_ – it was just a flash – but she could _see_ and _hear_ the crashing waves on the shore, feel the tingle of a breeze across her breasts, and her center squeezed around an imaginary dildo. She moaned.

“So, tell me, Kate, what do you want?”

“W-would you really make love to me on the balcony?” Kate asked.

“In a heartbeat. Any particular way you want?”

“But it’s so _open_ there. Anyone could see.”

“We’re a hundred feet up facing the ocean _and_ if anyone from a nearby home happened to be on their own balconies…We can never see what they do, so how would they see us?”

“I–” Kate started but then Jeri’s hand on her breast lifted to cover her mouth.

“Not what you _think_ you can do, but what you _want_ to do,” Jeri said against her ear then lowered her hand, returning to cupping but not massaging her breast.

After a moment letting her mind swim with the images, feeling the throbbing need in her body, Kate said, “I want us to make love on the balcony.”

“Anything else?”

“Like what?”

“A toy?”

“But we’ll be standing up.”

“Ah, now I have a picture. I can still use a toy, perhaps. Would you like that? To come screaming my name over the balcony railing while I’m fucking you?”

Kate closed her eyes and pictured exactly that. She moaned and her knees wobbled. “Please,” she whispered.

Jeri kissed her ear. “As you wish.”

# # #

Kate felt her excitement building instead of subsiding as they worked out the details of the plan. They’d lit several storm lanterns and planned to turn off the lights inside the house. While they were doing that, the sunset had dropped the temperature enough that naked seemed out of the question. So they agreed on a nightgown for Kate, easily lifted for access, and Jeri pulled on a robe.

For a moment, the Feeldoe looked like it might break the mood. Inserting it, Kate licking Jeri in the middle of their bed and pressing the bulb end into place, had been wonderful. When Jeri stood and it wobbled, Kate giggled. Sitting to reinsert it, Jeri said, “We’ll need a harness of some sort if we do this.”

Surprising herself, Kate came up with an alternative as she watched Jeri sitting on the edge of the bed. “You can sit on a chair out there. I can lower myself down.”

The smile that Jeri gifted her warmed Kate immensely. “See you’re getting the hang of this imagination thing.”

Kate took Jeri’s hand and they walked onto the balcony. The orange glow from the lanterns burnished Jeri’s legs golden as she sat in the chair. Kate started to kneel, only to wince with the pressure on her knees. She grabbed a cushion from the other chair and kissed Jeri’s mouth before helping her once again with inserting the Feeldoe.

Heart thrumming, Kate’s ears tuned to all the sounds. The waves crashing behind and below them. But soon she had focused in on one sound: Jeri’s breathing shifting as she licked her. She indulged her sense of touch too. She massaged the silk of Jeri’s skin and revelled in the way her thighs flexed under Kate’s hands.

“How wet are you?” Jeri asked. Her head was thrown back as she cupped the back of Kate’s head. “Touch yourself, Kate, please. I want to know.”

Kate lowered her hand to her own folds, continuing to lick Jeri’s. What she found was warm and so, so wet. The momentary touch left her throbbing. “I’m soaked,” she confessed to Jeri.

“Good.” Kate heard Jeri swallow. “Because I desperately need to be inside you. Right now.”

“As you wish.” She stood, straddled Jeri’s legs, lifted her chin and kissed her. She felt Jeri’s hand on her thigh, soothing strokes, and then her fingers and the tip of the Feeldoe against her entrance.

She placed her hands on Jeri’s chest, fingers tweaking her nipples and lowered herself slowly.

Jeri closed her legs and the Feeldoe filled Kate inch by inch. Moaning and thrusting her tongue in Jeri’s mouth, Kate fiercely kissed her lover. Jeri’s hips jerked upward and she sucked on Kate’s tongue.

Their moans mingled and the surf whisked away the sounds. Kate wrapped her arms around Jeri’s neck and tangled her fingers in the long blonde hair. She felt the moment their mounds contacted, the Feeldoe’s full length inside her. She rocked her hips and rubbed her clit against the ridges at the base of the toy. From her own experience wearing the toy, she knew this moved the other end inside Jeri.

“God, Kate,” Jeri hugged her then grasped her hips and held her while she repeatedly pushed the toy up into her.

Kate felt an orgasm starting to build. “Oh, God, I don’t want to come yet,” she protested. She started to lift up, to distance herself, trying to slow the feelings. Jeri grasped her hips and pulled her back down. “Jer...”

“I’m going to,” Jeri said, panting and hips lifting faster. “So go ahead, let’s come together.” She kissed Kate hard.

The ridges on the toy bumped her clit and Kate was unable to hold back the tide. Just like the Pacific waves that morning, her orgasm crashed over and through her.

She lowered her head, lifted Jeri’s breasts and sucked each one alternately with tight tweaks to the other. A few moments later, Jeri came again underneath her.

She rocked on the Feeldoe, tightening her internal muscles to move it between their bodies. “Kate!” Jeri gasped. She felt the way Jeri’s stomach muscles rippled with her third orgasm in as many minutes.

“Mm hm,” Kate hummed as her own second orgasm made her toes tingle.

After a moment luxuriating in the feeling, Kate felt Jeri’s hand slipped between their bodies. “Up.”

“But…”

“I’ll adjust it. I haven’t gotten you over the balcony railing yet.”

Kate stood, feeling the loss as the dildo slid away. Jeri held it inside herself, her fist around the base, and directed Kate to the railing. One arm around Kate’s front, she teased her nipples through the nightgown. “Too cool for a breeze,” she explained against Kate’s ear while Kate shuddered as the sensation traveled to her still throbbing center. A breeze might have felt good, but this, too, she thought, felt incredible.

Jeri lifted the back of Kate’s nightgown and pressed her front to Kate’s back, soft breasts warming her skin. After a moment exploring with her fingertips, sending tingles from various parts of Kate’s sex to her head and stomach clenching, Jeri bent her knees and pushed up, sliding the Feeldoe inside again. Kate groaned. She gripped Jeri’s arm across her chest. “Uh! yes!”

“Hold the railing,” Jeri said.

When she did, Kate saw Jeri brace her own hands to the outside of Kate’s and she felt the Feeldoe moving within her. The pace was slow but going deep and made her feel incredibly full. Jeri’s lips pressed against her shoulder, her breasts pillowed against her back, and her pelvis repeatedly rocked against her rear.

While thrusting with her hips, Jeri lifted one hand from the railing and tweaked Kate’s nipples right then left then right again through the nightgown. Kate’s orgasm hit her like fireworks. “Fuck!”

“You know, when you screamed in the hotel room during sex, I remember thinking how everyone on the floor would know exactly what I was doing to you.” Jeri continued lifting her hips and impaling Kate on the Feeldoe. “Now, I want the entire West Coast to hear you.”

“Oh, God.”

“You can come again, I know it. Touch yourself while I fuck you.” Jeri kissed her shoulder and continued to thrust with her hips and tweak nipples with her fingers.

Kate felt another orgasm starting as the first ebbed. She looked out toward the horizon, just able to make out the deep sea vessels and their lights bobbing in the Pacific. She felt Jeri’s lips at her ear and knew the request to touch herself would be coming again. She lowered her hand just as Jeri’s lips parted, warm breath against the shell of her ear. She shuddered at the first touch of her fingertips against her swollen, heated, and wet center. “Ung, God.” She rubbed herself and felt her knees quake. “Jer.” The Feeldoe rocked and Kate felt her entire body bear down on it, squeezing as if to a single point. “Oh! F–” She cut herself off with an incoherent shout as it all came together and she felt as if her body melted, skin from muscle, muscle from bone, bones to jelly. “Oh, oh, God, Jer, just...oh God.” She desperately tried to catch her breath.

Jeri kissed her ear. “That just leaves me something to shoot for next time.”

Kate felt Jeri cradle her body, holding her up as the tremors took her strength completely. Stimulation continued, decadently, as Jeri maneuvered to remove the Feeldoe. “Oh. My. God,” she said, panting between each word. “You...that was...felt amazing,” Kate managed.

“So, imaginative sex is good, yes?”

“God, yes.” Kate turned in Jeri’s arms, cuddling up to her chest. “Tell me something you want next.”

“Right now, honestly, I’m ready to drop. That was quite a workout.”

Kate noticed Jeri’s perspiration across the tops of her breasts and down her neck. She kissed the salty-sweet drops and wrapped her arms around Jeri’s back. With the railing hard against her shoulders, she looked up into Jeri’s face. “How about a massage?”

She wanted to get her hands on Jeri and if a massage would be all the other woman could handle for the moment, Kate decided she’d take it.

“I’d like that.”

Kate stepped back and closed Jeri’s robe so as not to tempt herself unnecessarily. She started forward only to realize her knees were still weak. Jeri’s arm slipped around her waist. Together they helped each other to their bedroom.

# # #

Grabbing towels from her bathroom, Jeri spread one on the bed and then laid on her stomach across it. She and Kate were both naked and she had directed Kate to the small vials of oil in the drawer of a bedside table.

“Just lavender,” Kate said. “I promised to let you sleep.”

Tired, Jeri nonetheless appreciated the humor and chuckled. “Thank you.”

She closed her eyes and soon was inhaling the soothing scent. The bed moved as Kate settled onto the mattress. Her lover’s hands were warm and slick when they rested for a moment on her mid-back. “Comfortable?” Kate asked.

“Mm hmm.”

Kate straddled her legs and shifted until Jeri felt the woman’s mound pressing against her ass. Kate’s strong hands moved slowly up from Jeri’s mid-back to her shoulders, palms spreading wide, warm oil smoothing the way. Thumbs separated her vertebrae and fingertips pressed out the spaces between her ribs. Jeri exhaled and felt her body slowly melting under the indulgent attention.

Jeri felt Kate shift her hands to her waist and strong fingers gripped and massaged her glutes. “Okay?” Kate asked.

“Mm hmm.”

“Are you falling asleep?”

“Mm hmm.”

Kate chuckled and her hands moved to Jeri’s legs. She briefly felt fingers between her thighs, but then they slipped away and Kate massaged her calves and then her feet.

Things were still for a long moment and Jeri wondered where Kate had gone, but she didn’t have the energy to lift her head to find out. Then tender lips brushed her shoulder and a sheet slid up over her body. The bed moved once more and Kate snuggled up against her side. “Another thing we can shoot for,” Kate whispered. Her lips touching Jeri’s temple were the last sensations before sleep fully claimed her.

# # #

The sun on her face through the bedroom window warmed Jeri and she opened her eyes to find herself curled on her side in her back. A few inches away she absorbed Kate’s profile as the other woman continued to sleep on her back. Gently, so she didn’t actually wake her, Jeri brushed aside a lock of hair from Kate’s shoulder and slid down her nightgown before pressing her lips tenderly to the woman’s soft skin.

When Kate moved minutely, Jeri paused, sliding her hand instead from the shoulder to the woman’s waist, shifting the hem of the fabric so she could reach the warm skin underneath.

So many months she had dreamed of waking up with Kate and making love to her, Jeri never failed to marvel at this sight. That this was truly her reality now.

She spread her palm up and under Kate’s nightgown, debating whether she wanted Kate naked as she was, or…

A warm hand slipped over hers and pressed it to Kate’s belly before moving lower. A whisper-soft and burring voice said, “Good morning.”

She kissed the shoulder again, then soothed over thin lips. “Good morning,” Jeri said as Kate led their fingers to Kate’s center where they were met with a warm and wet welcome.

“Been awake long?” Kate asked. Jeri soothed her fingers in and out as she watched Kate’s throat flush with her arousal.

“No,” Jeri replied. She shifted so her pelvis cradled Kate’s hip and brought her fingers to her lips to sample her lover’s flavor. “Did you sleep well?”

“Mm,” Kate hummed. “Did you?”

“I had a wonderful work out and massage before bed,” Jeri remarked.

“Oh, did you?” Kate lifted her right leg and shifted her hips. The motion turned her to more fully face Jeri and Jeri’s hand moved from her belly to her hip. Their gazes held softly and Kate smiled. “I’m glad.”

With minimal maneuvering, Jeri pulled Kate into her arms and felt the compact body contour warmly against her own. For a long moment she simply inhaled and exhaled, listened to Kate’s breathing, and basked in the solid comforting hug.

Jeri had started to drift off again when Kate said, “I have a few items to shop for.”

“Okay. Let’s go down into town and have breakfast somewhere.”

Kate snuggled more firmly against Jeri. “I don’t want to leave our bed just yet.”

Jeri smiled and kissed her lover’s hair. “All right.”

# # #

Kate and Jeri enjoyed a brunch down the street from Ortolan, and the travel items Kate collected from the nearby shops allowed them almost an hour walking hand in hand on the street.

Dressed in dark sunglasses and broad brimmed hats that shielded their skin and faces from both the sun and prying eyes, Kate enjoyed the anonymity but began compare them with the other couples walking along the avenue.

“There are a lot of men couples,” she murmured. “Not as many women. I wonder why.”

“I have no idea,” Jeri replied. “Maybe it’s the time of day.”

“Maybe.” Kate stepped into a jewelry store. “I wonder if they have dual time zone watches.”

“That’s silly. Just use your phone,” Jeri said.

Undeterred, Kate looked at the watches for a few moments, but a diamond bracelet caught her attention in a nearby case as she shifted. The faces of the diamonds were prismatic and the light broke into small rainbows all around it. “That’s beautiful,” Kate said.

“Would you and your...partner like to purchase a matching pair?”

Kate looked up to see a salesman in a brown suit had spoken to her. She’d thought she was simply talking with Jeri. “Um, I – well.” She stumbled to silence and looked to Jeri off her left shoulder.

Stepping forward, Jeri took Kate’s hand. “We’re fine, thank you.”

“Of course, ma’am.” He withdrew, going over to a customer standing at another showcase.

Back out on the street, Jeri continued to hold Kate’s hand and she turned over the long fingers laced through her own. “That bracelet,” she said, “would look wonderful on you.”

“And you,” Jeri replied. “But it’s rather formal. You’re not looking to attend the opera anytime soon, are you?”

“No, I suppose not.” Kate nodded. They walked along and saw people lining up as Ortolan was about to begin its service day. “Do you want to stop in your restaurant for a minute?”

Jeri nodded. “I should let Chris know I can come in a few hours each day next week.” When Kate frowned, Jeri smiled and then kissed her. She explained, “Alex doesn’t arrive until the day before you come home. I need something to keep me distracted from missing you so much.”

# # #

On Thursday morning, just as dawn was cresting, Jeri lay on her back on the padded lounger on her deck. Naked, her body throbbed on the verge of another orgasm. Kate lay between her thighs, fingers and tongue exploring her deeply and thoroughly.

While Jeri pulled at her own nipples, Kate’s lips grasped and sucked Jeri’s clit and her fingers curled inside and gave her release. “Ohng! Mm!”

She grasped Kate’s shoulders, tugging her up to blanket her body from the breeze. She wrapped her legs around Kate’s back and rubbed her still wet and hot center against Kate’s belly.

Kate chuckling throatily in her ear caused pleasurable shivers and the woman’s fingers continued smoothly slipping in and out. Jeri hummed as her center continued to lightly throb.

“I wish I could crawl up inside you,” Kate said, kissing Jeri so she tasted herself on the thin lips. “Touching you, tasting you so intimately. It is...so...perfect,” she finished, clearly struggling to explain her emotions.

Jeri brushed Kate’s damp hair from her cheeks and held the deep blue gaze with her own. She caressed the woman’s brow and then cupped her chin. Softly she pressed their lips together. “I’m going to miss you, too.”

Kate sat up. “Sooner gone, sooner back,” she said. “Right?”

“Right.” Jeri sat up. “So let’s get you showered. You finished packing last night?”

“Mm hmm,” Kate replied, words lost as Jeri nuzzled her breasts, unable to resist the lure of them before her.

 _Maybe one more time in the shower_ , Jeri thought as she took Kate’s hand and led her to the master bathroom. _That might be enough to help me last the week_.

# # #

Kate kissed Jeri then slid into the back seat of the Uber. Her luggage, two bags, for a week on the East Coast, had been put in the gray sedan’s trunk. She heard doors opening and closing, but had eyes only for the blonde standing on her home’s front steps.

“Where you headed?”

“Hmm?” Kate looked over her driver. The young blond wore a gray suit jacket over a mint green v-neck t-shirt, skinny leg jeans, and had a single diamond-stud earring in his right ear. He didn’t look much older than her sons. Shaking her head, she closed her eyes and exhaled. “Airport. LAX.”

“No, I meant, where are you traveling to?”

“Maryland.”

“That’s a long way. Work or pleasure?”

“Work actually.”

“When are you coming home?” he asked.

“Not soon enough,” Kate sighed. She glanced over her shoulder taking a last look, just seeing the house’s roof as the car entered the coast highway.

“So, you and the blonde been together long?”

“No.”

“Hmm. You looked pretty committed. You gonna marry her?”

Kate frowned; yes, she’d been thinking about doing something with Jeri to signify their commitment, a promise to stand by each other, but... “Marriage isn’t legal.”

“Could be soon,” he said. “We’re finally making noise to do something about it.”

“Here in California?”

“Yep,” he said. “Court’s looking at it now. My guy and I are talking about a June date, soon as it’s legal.” He flashed his left hand at her where a ring sat.

Kate nodded. “I had no idea.” She looked at her phone, thinking she wanted to talk to Jeri just for a moment. But instead of calling because she didn’t want to be overheard by the driver, she texted. _I’ll be back soon. I love you._

Her phone was quiet then a ding signaled Jeri had replied. _You haven’t even been gone five minutes. I love you too._ She had added a bright red heart emoji at the end of the message; Kate’s heart swelled at the sight.

She couldn’t remember feeling this sappy when married to either of her exes. She felt her fingers tingle with the memory of holding Jeri’s hand as they walked around town the previous day. Such a simple thing to cause so much pleasure.

That thought made her realize that, yes, she _did_ want to marry Jeri. She began to wonder about the issue. “You say some states have made same-sex marriage legal?”

“Yeah. You could probably find out which ones online.”

She opened her phone’s search app and typed in “same sex marriage.” She found several organizations listed in the results and began to read. By the time she had to shut off her phone and board her cross-country flight, Kate’s mind was buzzing with a rough mix of emotions – anxiety and frustration mostly, but also determination and hope.

**Author's Note:**

> The issue of same sex marriage was a hot one in early 2008 when this story is set. In March 2008, it was becoming clear that civil unions were still not granting the right level of protections to same-sex couples and there were wide protests demanding marriage equality as the only remedy. Some states enacted defense of marriage acts (one man-one woman) and were challenged in court.
> 
> Some states were offering civil unions -- not marriages -- to same-sex couples, which Kate has just learned. The fight would intensify over the next three years until 2011 when the US Supreme Court finally ruled marriage must be extended to all residents in all states under the 14th amendment.


End file.
